Bias Charge Against Academy Spurs Probe

July 23, 1989|By Knight-Ridder Newspapers.

WASHINGTON — Acting on the complaint of a legal activist, a House Armed Services subcommittee has begun an initial investigation into allegations that The Citadel, an all-male military academy in South Carolina, discriminates against women in violation of federal civil rights laws.

Rep. Pat Schroeder (D., Colo.), chairwoman of the military installations and facilities panel, has particularly asked the Navy to look into the claim that some school cadets and professors receive free medical care at the Charleston Naval Hospital.

John Banzhaf III, a professor of law and legal activism at the National Law Center at George Washington University, has filed a sex-discrimination complaint with the Justice Department and the House subcommittee against The Citadel, claiming the all-male bastion should admit women to its program because it receives state and federal support.

Schroeder, whose office said the inquiry was ``not an effort to go after The Citadel,`` nonetheless wrote Navy Secretary Lawrence Garrett, saying the complaint ``raises serious issues.`` She asked him to respond to the charges. Banzhaf, who has a history of successfully pursuing sex discrimination cases, maintains that providing free medical care for students and teachers at a federal facility ``constitutes a program funded by the U.S. government from which people were barred solely because of their gender.`` And that, he argued, is illegal.

Citadel spokesman Ben Legare Jr. acknowledged that some cadets and staffers get free medical attention at the naval hospital. But he noted they were either retired military personnel or dependents. Otherwise, he added, cadets are treated at the school infirmary.

In addition to the free medical care at the Navy hospital, Banzhaf noted that The Citadel has a Reserve Officers Training Corps program that receives federal support.

Banzhaf, in the complaint filed with the House panel, contends that the federal government would never think of supporting any program where blacks or Jews are excluded.

``Why then at The Citadel, where the discrimination is based on sex rather than race or religion?`` the complaint asks.